interslavic community

1. pronunciation and alphabet

pronunciation

Unlike English, Interslavic
words are pronounced the same way they are written. This is good
news. It means that once you learn how to pronounce individual NS
characters, you will be able to pronounce any NS word.

Stress is on the first syllable of short words. That syllable is only slightly emphasized, just like in the English words "table", "memory". Long words have stress at internal syllable finishing by three or more consonants just like in the English word "December".

However, Interslavicis an artificial language andthereforeallows differentkinds ofstressing. Polish speakers, for example, will tend to put stress always on the second to last syllable of a word; Czechs will tend to put stress on the first syllable of a word.

alphabet

Interslavic actually uses two fully equivalent alphabets: Latin and Cyrillic. In addition, it also has atranscriptavailableinASCIIand Greekalphabets, andit ispossible to usethe first-everSlavic script:Glagoliticfor your pleasure.In this coursewe willusethe Latin alphabet with a brief outlineof itstranscriptioninCyrillic. Do take notice that Interslavic uses the English version of the Latin alphabet supplemented by three diacritic marked consonants č, š, ž and one diacritic marked vowel ě. These letters can be written using combinations of non-accented Latin letters as cz, sz, zs and ie (example: člověk = czloviek = a man).

There are no other accented letters or other "non-English" characters except those four. Neoslavonic Latin alphabet is derived from the international standard ISO 9 and the Russian state standard GOST and the United Nations standard UN 1987 made by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). Neoslavonic letters can be found in many Slavic languages (for example marked Latin letters č, š, ž, ě are in Slovenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, ... and Cyrillic letters are the same in Church Slavonic, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, ...). For your information, this systemofLatin character diacritics has been introducedin the early 15thcenturyby the Czechthinker, martyr and reformer Jan Hus.

Latin

Latin

Cyrillic

Greek

IPA

example

name

a

a

а

α

[a]

alphabet, but

a

b

b

б

μπ

[b]

beer, bird

be

c

c

ц

τς

[ts]

cats

ce

č

cz

ц

τζ

[tʃ]

chimney, bench

če

d

d

д

δ

[d]

date, do, odd

de

dj

dj

дь

δι

[ɟ]

duty

dje

dž

dzs

дж

δζς

[dʒ]

juice, gymnastics

dže

e

e

е

ε

[ɛ]

bed, yes

e

f

f

ф

φ

[f]

photo, leaf

ef

g

g

г

γ

[g]

go, get

ge

h

h

х

χ

[x]

loch (Scottish), José (Spanish)

ha

i

i

и

η

[i]

city, see, meat

i

ě

ie

е (ѣ)

ε (ιε)

[jɛ]

yes, bien (Spanish), piedra (Spanish)

jatj

j

j

ј

ι

[j]

yes, you

je

ju

ju

ю

ιου

[jʊ]

you, cute

ju

k

k

к

κ

[k]

kill, skin

ka

l

l

л

λ

[l]

like, loop

el

lj

lj

ль

λι

[ʎ]

caballero (Spanish)

elj

m

m

м

μ

[m]

man, ham

em

n

n

н

ν

[n]

no, nose

en

nj

nj

нь

νι

[ɲ]

new, cognac, mañana (Spanish)

enj

o

o

о (ω)

ο (ω)

[ɔ]

law, talk, no (Spanish)

o

p

p

п

π

[p]

pen, spin

pe

q

q

к

κ

[k]

kill, skin

kve

r

r

р

ρ

[r]

sombrero (Spanish)

er

s

s

с

σ

[s]

see, city, pass

es

š

sz

ш

σζ

[ʃ]

she, shame

eš

šč

szcz

щ

σζτζ

[ʃt]

š + č

šta

t

t

т

τ

[t]

to, motor

te

th

th

ѳ

θ

[θ]

thing, teeth

the

tj

tj

ть

τι

[c]

Tuesday, opportunity

tje

u

u

у

ου

[ʊ]

put, good

u

v

v

в

β

[v]

voice, have

ve

w

w

вв

ββ

[v]

voice, have

dvojne ve

x

x

кс

ξ

[ks]

sex, six

eks

y

y

ы

υ

[i]

city, see, meat

ypsilon

z

z

з

ζ

[z]

zoo, zombie, rose

zet

ž

zs

ж

ζς

[ʒ]

pleasure, Jean (French)

žet

NS also has an auxiliary letter, which is actually a character without its own sound. It is the letter "j" after consonants from the Latin alphabet and is called a "jer" or a "soft sign". It has its own shape "ь" in the Cyrillic alphabet. This soft sign letter is used to represent a change in the pronunciation of an immediately preceding consonant - which in linguistics is called palatalization - by which the pronunciation of a consonant comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate.

Examples: dj=дь, tj=ть, nj=нь, lj=ль

note:

There is no sound difference between characters i and y (as well as in modern Greek, for example). We use these two symbols of the same sound in order to express different grammatical information about gender and case in order to separate some homonyms only. In case of "simplified orthography", it is possible to write only one character i.

Letter ě=ѣ is pronounced in the same way as standard e and softens theprecedingconsonants from dě, tě, ně, lě to dj+e, tj+e, nj+e, lj+e. In other cases this character is pronounced as jotized e (eg. two sounds j+e). This characterisoften writtenin Cyrillic (and simplified Latin) as the standard e only.

Letter combination ch can be used instead of simple h also for the sound [x] but only in international words in order to keep original Greek/Latin orthography (archiv, chorus, for example).

Ligature ju=юsoftens theprecedingconsonants from dju, tju, nju, lju to dj+u, tj+u, nj+u, lj+u. In other cases this character is pronounced as jotized u (e.g. two sounds j+u).

SomeSlaviclanguages ​​(Slovak, Russian, ...) usevowelse andi forsofteningthe preceding consonants in the same way as softening using ě and ju. NS languagedoes not support softening using e and i, but only using ě and ju: The combination ofthe lettersneis pronouncedonly asn+e, andnot asnj+e, or the combination ofthe lettersniis pronouncedonly asn+i, andnot asnj+i, for example.

Neoslavonic has syllabic r, which behave in the same way as vowels when form syllables (the same situation is in Sanskrit, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, ...), but some modernnational Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, ...) lost this feature. Syllabicr typically stay between two consonants (e.g. p-r-st = a finger, sm-r-t = death, ...) and creates syllable.

Old Church Slavonic (and similarly in modern Polish) has nasal vowels ę=ѧ=[æⁿ] and ǫ=ѫ=[oⁿ] plus their jotized versions. In accordancewith the evolution ofmost Slavic languages,​​we do not usenasals. There is simple application rule in order to nasal replacement: ę=ѧ → e and ǫ=ѫ → u.
(e.g. język → jezyk = language, bǫdǫ → budu = I will be)

However, Interslavicis an artificial and auxiliary language andthereforeallows differentkinds ofpronunciation.It will not bea big mistake,for example,ifRussians or anybody else will pronounceeand isoftly.

palatalization and euphonySlaviclanguages ​​areknown by the consonant softening in some situations of word derivation, declension or conjugation. This process is called palatalization. Neoslavonicit has alsoincluded, but in a verylimited way of only three regular rules related with the soft consonants č, š, ž as

In order to sound almost like an ordinary natural Slavic language, we need to improve certain artificially generated sound combinations caused by application of grammatical endings to verbs in order to create personal form and participles. There are only three euphony rules related to the same soft consonants č, š, žas

As in Latin, Greek, Germanic and Romanesque languages, there is loosing vowel "e" in Neoslavonic word endings. The most frequent case of this loosing effect is declension, where loosing wovel is present only in the nominative.